Unobstructed View

By Nancy Rouse-Talley

Hundreds of unique 2D and 3D file formats are produced by mechanical and electronic CAD software, and engineers often need to look at files generated by several different systems. It’s no wonder then that file viewers are an indispensable tool in the engineer’s arsenal.

Many software companies offer viewers to engineers. But few, if any,  supply comprehensive product selection. Cimmetry Systems, Inc. (St-Laurent,Quebec, Canada; cimmetry.com) offers four desktop software programs for viewing, printing, plotting, and annotating mechanical and electronic CAD formats. Plus, the company provides server-based software, written in Java, which allows users to work in a variety of Java-enabled Web browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

Using the latest update to AutoVue, version 17.1c1, is not difficult,  and working through the program’s help file, which is well organized,  provides more than enough guidance on how to use the features of the program. Cimmetry provides a number of files for testing its programs,  including 14 2D, 17 3D, 24 electronic-CAD, and a number of file types from programs such as the Microsoft Office suite. These files, and other SolidWorks and AutoCAD files produced by actual CAD users, were used for this review.

This view shows a window with a BOM (bill of materials) containing attributes associated with board layouts. Such BOMs can be exported from AutoVue in text, Product Data Exchange,  and Microsoft Excel formats.

Cimmetry Outdoes Itself

Cimmetry develops all of its viewers in house rather than relying on technology licensed from third-party vendors. According to Cimmetry Marketing Manager Pam Petropoulos, this approach allows the company to provide viewers that support updated CAD programs quickly. Without those updated viewers, users are often frustrated by files created with new software.

For example, Cimmetry’s 2D and 3D AutoVue 17 products were updated with a service pack to support AutoCAD 2004 within a month of the software’s release in March 2003. In contrast, firms that license DWG support from the Open Design Alliance (Phoenix, AZ; open website) had to wait until the group updated its program libraries in May 2003 to begin incorporating the changes into their programs.

Cimmetry’s products let users look at native CAD files. Competitive programs often display file formats converted from the original. For example, Informative Graphics’s Brava! product lets users view files from electronic-CAD programs, but only through a program called CAMCAD by Router Solutions (Newport Beach, CA; rsi-inc.com) that converts native CAD files into an XML format for display.

In addition, Cimmetry’s server-based products offer real-time collaboration capabilities. Multiple designers can annotate files simultaneously, and the software archives individual comments, which are color coded, to provide an audit trail. A user can get rid of his or her markups from a session, but cannot delete others’ annotations.

The server-based product also provides real-time, text-based chat for online users. Its Whispering feature is different from other desktop-sharing applications because it allows several users from a group to chat independently without other members participating. Again, chats are recorded and kept with the markup file.

Users can find individual components and other items in complex electronic-design files by selecting them from a component hierarchy that provides information such as the type of component (in this case an integrated circuit), the name of the component, and its location. Details on pins, nets, and pad stacks for individual components are also provided.

Electronic CAD and EDA

Cimmetry is in the forefront of an important trend in engineering with the addition of electronic-CAD formats to its viewers. Most products today incorporate both mechanical and electronic components, and engineers sometimes have to look at both types of files during the design process.

For example, a PCB (printed circuit board) designer might have to determine how a board fits into a cabinet. AutoVue allows the board designer to place a board from a PCB design program into cabinet geometry created in an MCAD program.

What’s more, putting viewers for both mechanical and electronic CAD software in the same product saves money. In the past, two separate viewers were required in order to look at mechanical and electronic file formats, so companies had to purchase and maintain two sets of software.

Cimmetry incorporates viewing and annotation of electronic design automation (EDA) files into its high-end products, AutoVue SolidModel for 2D and 3D viewing, and AutoVue SolidModel Professional for annotating as well as viewing 2D and 3D. The functions of both high-end desktop products are incorporated into the company’s server-based software,  AutoVue SolidModel for Java and SolidModel Professional for Java. The EDA viewer also calculates minimum distances between nets in schematics,  allowing engineers to minimize crosstalk. The program reads native electronic CAD files so the measurements are precise, rather than estimates. Viewers can read more than 50 EDA file types from PCB,  integrated circuit layout, and schematic capture programs including Mentor Board Station and Design Architect, Cadence Allegro, Allegro Extract, PADS Power PCB, Zuken CADSTAR, and PCAD 2002.

Markups can be made by engineers simultaneously, enhancing collaboration, and appear in the color assigned by AutoVue to the individual user. Only one engineer at a time can control functions such as rotation during a session, but session control can be passed from one user to another.

Test Drive One Today

Many design engineers consider Cimmetry viewers the gold standards in their field because of foolproof operation. Viewers can sometimes fail when opening complex files, even when the software supports the file format in question. AutoVue SolidModel Professional opened a range of 2D and 3D files (not provided by the company) without fail during testing.

Users considering Cimmetry products should test the software on their own files. This is easy to do because the company lets potential customers download fully functional evaluation copies of its viewers from its website. Users can test drive the thin-client viewer on Cimmetry’s servers.

Engineers can manipulate file entities and attributes of electronic CAD files. For example, an engineer can select individual components,  pins, nets, traces, and other file elements from a list offered in the program’s entity browser. Selected items are shown highlighted in the display.

Users can also design filters to highlight groups of entities. A downside is they are unable to save filters. However, they can export file data from filters to text (.CSV) files. A future version of AutoVue SolidModel Professional will include the ability to save filters,  according to Petropoulos.

Other Great Features

The program’s cross-probe feature lets engineers look at the same part on a schematic capture and a PCB layout simultaneously. Components selected on a schematic capture are automatically highlighted on the board layout. This feature allows engineers to verify that what was designed in the schematic was actually implemented on the board.

AutoVue offers a number of features to organize schematics, which may contain many pages and layers. For instance, engineers can turn layers on and off, and can print individual layers. They also can move layers around to view them in different ways, and can change the colors used on them. Another feature lets users follow links from one page in a schematic to the next. Changing the way a schematic is viewed does not change file properties.

<>AutoVue can generate a bill of material from a board layout and export the data to a Microsoft Excel, Product Data Exchange, or text file format. Finally, users can generate 3D views of PCB boards in AutoVue, as long as the original electronic CAD program has the ability to store 3D data. It clearly accomplishes what other products have been unable to emulate.

Nancy Rouse-Talley is a freelance writer who focuses on technology subjects, including PLM (product lifecycle management),  CAD/CAM, and engineering. You can send her your thoughts c/o reader feedback.

Company and Product Information

Cimmetry Systems, Inc.
514-735-3219
website
AutoVue SolidModel 2D/3D viewing ($995)
AutoVue SolidModel Professional ($1,495 per license) adds annotating feature
AutoVue SolidModel for Java ($995)
SolidModel Professional for Java ($1,495)